Three Years Later, Search For Baby Michael's Mother Continues

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CUMBERLAND COUNTY, N.C. — Cumberland County deputies have spent three years searching for clues and tracking down leads, but they are no closer to finding a mother who might have dumped her newborn baby along a rural road.

Kelly McDonald, executive director of the Child Advocacy Center, remembers how the death of Baby Michael changed the Gray's Creek community three years ago.
The newborn baby was found dead, dumped in a plastic bag on the side of the road.

"The time goes by and people forget these children have been victims of tragic crimes," she said.

The Cumberland County Sheriff's Office named the infant after an angel in the Bible. After dozens of interviews, leads, and pieces of evidence, investigators are still looking for the baby's mother, but the search is narrowing.

"There will always be a connection to whoever has done this because of DNA between the baby and the mother," said Sgt. Mike Casey of the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office.

Over the past year, investigators have come up with 43 leads. Fifteen of them have been ruled out through interviews and polygraph tests.

"Sixteen of those we have investigated and ruled them out as being unfounded through DNA," Casey said.

Twelve more uninvestigated leads remain, but people in the community remain hopeful that a break in the case comes soon.

"I think that there is someone out there with more information. They may very well come forward," McDonald said.

The Cumberland County Sheriff's Office has also set up a monument fund to buy a nice tombstone for Baby Michael's grave. On Saturday, there will be a memorial service at Hair's Chapel Free Will Holiness Church in Linden.

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